How do you make a UITableView smaller programmatically? - uiviewcontroller

Question

Rather than bloat and convolute this post with what I've tried and failed at, I'll just keep it simple, as I'm sure the answer is probably simpler than I think.
I have a scrolling UITableView on the main view of my application. All I'm trying to do is move the default position--or "starting point"--of the scrolling UITableView down about 194 points to make room for my navigation bar and a couple other UI elements. How do I do this? Here are what I believe to be the pertinent method implementations from my ViewController .h and .m files, respectively:
// MGViewController.h
// UITVPractice
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#interface ItemsViewController : UITableViewController
-(id) init;
-(id) initWithStyle:(UITableViewStyle)style;
#end
// MGViewController.m
// UITVPractice
#import "ItemsViewController.h"
#import "MGItem.h"
#import "MGItemStore.h"
#implementation ItemsViewController
-(void)viewDidLoad {
UIImageView *backgroundImageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"background.png"]];
self.tableView.backgroundView = backgroundImageView;
[super viewDidLoad];
}
-(id) init {
self = [super initWithStyle:UITableViewStyleGrouped];
if (self) {
/* create 5 random MGItems and place in the MGItemStore */
for (int i = 0; i < 20; i++) {
[[MGItemStore sharedStore] createItem];
}
}
return self;
}
-(NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView
numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
return [[[MGItemStore sharedStore] allItems] count];
}
-(UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView
cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:#"UITableViewCell"];
/* Create an instance of UITableViewCell */
if (!cell) {
cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault
reuseIdentifier:#"UITableViewCell"];
}
UIView *backView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
backView.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
cell.backgroundView = backView;
/* Display custom background image for cell(s) */
cell.backgroundView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[[UIImage imageNamed:#"cellBackground.png"] stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth:0.0 topCapHeight:5.0]];
/* Display custom background image for selected cell(s) */
cell.selectedBackgroundView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[[UIImage imageNamed:#"cellBackgroundTouched.png"] stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth:0.0 topCapHeight:5.0]];
/* eliminate the white box that bounds the black text. */
[[cell contentView] setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
[[cell backgroundView] setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
[cell setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
/* Set the text of the cell to the description of the item that is at the nth index of items, where n = row this cell will appear in on the tableView */
MGItem *p = [[[MGItemStore sharedStore] allItems] objectAtIndex:[indexPath row]];
[[cell textLabel] setText:[p description]];
[[cell textLabel] setTextColor:[UIColor whiteColor]];
// [[cell textLabel] highlightedTextColor: [UIColor purpleColor]];
return cell;
}
-(id) initWithStyle:(UITableViewStyle)style {
return [self init];
}
#end
I apologize if this post comes off as a "do this for me" post, but I've tried about a dozen different things and none of them have worked. Been stuck on this for about 3 days. Thanks for any help you can provide.
EDIT: Yes, Ismael, you're correct. It is a subclass of UITableViewController. I think I understand what you're saying. Working on it now. Thanks to both who answered.

Answer 1

The best way to do this is to "nest" the tableview controller inside another UIView. If you are using storyboards, just add a "container view" then set that view controller's class to that of your tableview controller. Then, changing the container view's size will automatically change the table view's size. Here's an example where I have a few table views nested in one view:

Answer 2

I take it your controller is a subclass of UITableViewController? If that's the case, then you will have to change that.
In order to do this, change the subclass to UIViewController, add the UITableViewDelegate and UITableViewDataSource protocols.
Then, add a UITableView *tableView property and change your viewDidLoad method to look like this:
-(void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad]; // [super viewDidLoad]; should go first!!
CGFloat startingPoint = 194.0; // or whatever
CGRect tableRect = self.view.bounds;
tableRect.origin.y = startingPoint;
tableRect.size.height -= startingPoint;
self.tableView = [[UITableView alloc] initWithFrame:tableRect style:UITableViewStyleGrouped]; // or plain, whichever you need
self.tableView.dataSource = self;
self.tableView.delegate = self;
self.tableView.separatorStyle = UITableViewCellSeparatorStyleSingleLine; // do this if grouped, looks better!
self.tableView.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight;
[self.view addSubview:self.tableView];
UIImageView *backgroundImageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"background.png"]];
self.tableView.backgroundView = backgroundImageView;
}
Edit: There's a reason for this. In a normal UIViewController, the self.view is a UIView, but in a UITableViewController, the self.view is the same as self.tableView and is a UITableView, and that's why you can't change the frame of it.